ACLU sues Penn State Health over canceled gender-affirming care procedure

The lawsuit states that administrators at Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center in Reading, Berks County, claimed such a procedure would violate Catholic doctrine. 

“I did everything right. I followed my doctors’ advice and trusted Penn State Health after they made me feel there was a place for patients like me. But being denied care so suddenly, simply because of who I am, was a devastating eye-opener,” Stiles said in a press release. 

“If an institution’s biases can so easily lock transgender and nonbinary patients out of care, then our health care system is operating with holes that need to be addressed. We all deserve equal access to health care, and to be served by institutions that honor their responsibility to treat us with dignity,” they continued.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP filed the lawsuit on Stiles’ behalf in the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County Tuesday afternoon. Defendants include Penn State Health, Penn State Health St. Joseph and Pennsylvania State University. 

Though St. Joseph Medical Center identifies as a Catholic hospital, it is part of Penn State Health, a network of public hospitals. Plaintiffs argue that it violated the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and Equal Amendment Act as well as “religious freedom provisions in the Pennsylvania Constitution by exercising state authority to enforce religious doctrine.”

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“EJ Stiles has the right to access the same health care options as any other patient, and those decisions are between a patient and their doctor,” said Rich Ting, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “EJ’s surgery at a Penn State Health hospital being canceled based on religious beliefs is an outrageous and illegal action that put EJ’s health and well-being in jeopardy for months. If hospitals controlled by a public university can reap the benefits of state funds, then they must be bound by the same constitutional and equal protection mandates as all other state-funded institutions.” 

Penn State Health didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Healthcare providers across the country have scaled back gender-affirming care, even in Democratic-led states, following the Trump administration’s threats to transgender healthcare. 

Just over half of states ban gender-affirming care for minors, and 29 states restrict sport participation — though such a prohibition hasn’t advanced in Pennsylvania.